DC and Marvel
by Meddoc
Summary: This is a crossover between the DC and Marvel comics universes. It starts with a gripping plot between big villains and progresses from various perspectives. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

Granny

I have faithfully served my Lord for longer than any of his other minions, and I was used to his need for privacy in his chambers as he sought to find a way to achieve his ultimate goal, which lesser beings such as the Kryptonian have often interfered with. Most other servants foolish enough to invade such privacy have never come back, for undoubtedly they had perished at the might of my master's Omega Beams, which had no equal in power. Some like the cowardly Desaad were brought back by my Lord for reasons that could not be understood, but my master always made decisions that would favor his causes in the end, and his judgment was always intact.

It was one such time that my master was alone in his throne-chamber that I was heading out of the palace to inspect the Furies, Apokolips's finest and most blood-thirsty warriors. I was nearly halfway to the training facility, where memories of my faithful hound Mercy, who I trained to follow the demands of my master, resurfaced. I was recalling such glorious times when the atmosphere behind me seemed to glow a slight shade of blue. I turned to see what it was, and I witnessed what appeared to be an object of great blue light falling from the vast emptiness of space toward a destination distant from where I was located. The object was no meteor, for I had never seen a meteor that could give off such a powerful aura. The object speed toward and eventually met its destination, and there it gave off a powerful force wave. The glow intensified to the point where I could no longer bear to face it, and I turned away with my eyes closed, waiting to again look at the mysterious object.

When the noise had died down, and I could make out the sound of dust settling, I looked back around in the distance to observe the damage done by the object. Any structures that were there were knocked down…no, they were not knocked down. They were dissolved to nothing. Any trace of them that was once there was gone forever. I had never seen such massive power brought about before, except from my Lords Omega Beams, and this left me in a temporary awe. I looked around myself and saw various Parademons in a similar manner that I had previously been in, and I automatically saw it as my duty to rally them and get to the bottom of the matter. "You!" I shouted to a nearby Parademon, who immediately snapped to attention, along with the other ones nearby. "Get a squadron down to that site, and have Desaad report down there with the Furies to await my orders! Send a messenger to inform Lord…". "No need Granny" boomed the deep, familiar voice behind me, "I have arrived." I turned and bowed, and the Parademons followed my example, as deeply as I could to my master, who stood to his full height, clad in his familiar attire of dark blue and black, his deep eyes glowing with red fire beneath his dark helm. He stared in the distance, in the direction of the mysterious object, and signaled me to follow him. We walked together for a long while, and we met Desaad walking towards us, his pathetic face facing the ground with false and cowardly respect towards my dear Lord, who looked down on Desaad with a clear look of loathing and disgust in his gaze. "My Lord" sniveled Desaad, "We cannot identify…"

"I do not have time to listen to your pathetic report Desaad" boomed my master, whose voice seemed to come from under the planets surface like the fire pits that made up a majority of the planet. "I will go to the site myself and see what I make of it." With that, my Lord again began to stride towards the object with myself in tow, leaving the miserable wretch to himself. Eventually we reached the site, a crater that appeared to have around a mile diameter in all directions, surrounded by the Parademons that I ordered to observe the site. I desired to go down and see what was capable of causing such unparalleled damage, but my Lord signaled me to stay where I was. "You will maintain control here, and no one is to follow me down" he said in that powerful and deep voice that could make his enemies shake in fear. He continued down into the crater in the direction of the center, where the object continued to glow blue, but now it was far more bearable to look at, and I could make out the shape of it better. It was a cube.

Even from the edge I could feel a slight aura of power emitting from the cube, pulsing like a beating heart. My Lord reached the center of the crater and looked down at the cube, observing it with great interest, and I watched on with great anticipation, along with the Parademons. He was making a gesture to pick it up when a great light came into existence a few yards in front of him. He looked up to face it as the light intensified, and I looked on with my curiosity furiously growing. The light then died down, and a new being stood where it was, and I realized that he looked like my master.

He was different, of course, for he was clad in a lighter blue color and had gold plating on his outfit, and his skin complexion was purple, whereas my Lords was a stone grey color, but he was built similarly, with powerful muscles making up his whole being, and he radiated a level of power that matched my masters. He also shared a similar charisma in his eyes, which also glowed red with malice and hatred. They stared at each other for what seemed to be forever, until the new being said in a booming voice, also similar to my masters, "I have come to take back what is mine." My Lord responded "You will take nothing from me. This object emits a power that I see as useful, and it has fallen into my territory, and is therefore mine." Many lesser beings have trembled at the sound of such a voice, but this newcomer stood his ground and wore a new expression on his face. It was an expression of annoyance. "You are a fool if you think you are worthy to wield the Tesseract." This retort fired up my fury. No one could go about making such insults at my master without suffering my wrath.

My Lord stood silently, facing his opponent without moving. Then, faster than I could follow, my master's Omega Beams blazed from his eyes in a glorious red beam of pure energy. Immediately another intense light blazed between the two beings, and I was again forced to shield my eyes. I managed to glimpse occasionally at the epic event, and I saw what was occurring. The new being was firing his own energies at the Beams, and they continued to meet between the two superpowers without actually meeting their targets. I was astonished, for it was rare for me to witness a being who could match the might of my master. Then, as suddenly as it started, it ended. Both beings stared at each other, neither looking remotely tired or exhausted, but they now shared the exact same look on their faces. Amusement.

"Perhaps I was mistaken to think that you were unworthy" stated the newcomer, "for few can match my prowess." "Likewise" responded my Lord, "I have never met one who could defend against my Omega Beams." They both looked down at the object that the newcomer called the "Tesseract", and my Lord eventually said "This truly is a powerful relic. With it I could find the Anti-Life Equation." The new being looked up with a look of curiosity on his face. "The Anti-Life Equation?" he inquired. My master responded "The means to wipe the universe clean of all life in existence and rewrite the universe in my own image. Other lives are meaningless to me and hold no value." The new being looked at my master's face and spoke "That is a true perspective that I myself share, and I too seek to, as you say, "wipe the universe clean of all life"."

Again, they stood in silence as I looked on with the Parademons in astonishment. Finally my master said "The only problem is lesser beings who think themselves to be higher than us, who view themselves as heroes of their worlds." The newcomer nodded in agreement and said "I have had my fair share of dealings with such heroes. They would always beat me, but just barely." My Lord then said "My heroes have proved to be quite formidable, but what if they were to meet yours in combat?" The newcomer nodded and said "It would be the ultimate battle, and it could easily be arranged by our combined resources." My master stood silent, a cruel grin stretching across his face, and he said "Come. We must talk more on this matter. But first, what are you called?"

The new being responded "Names can be dangerous." This was true. Few on Apokolips were worthy to even mutter the dread one's name. My master raised an eyebrow, then he said "I am Darkseid, ruler of Apokolips." The new being's face also split into s cruel, dark grin, and he said "I am Thanos, the lover of Death."


	2. Chapter 2

Peter

I love New York. Now you could tell me that I only like it here because I grew up here, but I'll tell you that I would still like it anyway just because. I especially like New York when I'm out doing work. No, not my make-a-living work, I'm talking about my save-the-city-from-evil-doers-and-idiots work, where I spend hours swinging from buildings, trees, and occasionally the Statue of Liberty. Kicking bad guy butt and wall-crawling often serve as the highlights of my days, unless I had pizza prior to that, and it's especially big when I do it with the Avengers.

I was swinging one morning, on the day my biggest adventure started, singing "New York, New York" to myself, in the direction of the Avengers Tower, which stands out in the New York skyline in all directions, to answer the summons of our lovely sponsor Tony Stark. On my way there I stopped on the side of an apartment building to finish my final verse.

"We are a great big part of it. New York, Neeeew…"

"HEY!" a loud voice bellowed, nearly making me fall off of the building. I quickly turned to see a familiar middle aged man pacing out of his apartment on to his balcony. "Will you shut up and..." he continued to yell but them stopped, and his expression changed from angry to shocked to pure loathing in an instant.

"Oh, it's _you_" he said with an annoyed voice, and I recognized him as my boss at the Daily Bugle and my least favorite fan, J. Jonah Jameson. "I'm pretty sure that disturbing the peace and trespassing is illegal here web-head."

"Okay, first off Chuckles, I'm not on your property, I'm on a wall of a public building, so there goes the trespassing charge" I retorted, "and second, with you, things are never peaceful, so me singing shouldn't be much of a difference." Jameson sneered at me and said, "You may be called a hero by the public, but I'm not fooled. I know for a fact that you're just an annoying, meddling, web-headed menace, and if you had any decency you would turn yourself into the authorities!" At this I said, "That's nice. See you later." I was turning to leave when a thought occurred to me, and I stopped and looked back at Jameson and retorted, "Oh, and by the way, Hitler called." By the shocked and confused expression on his face I knew that he didn't get the joke.

"He says that he wants his mustache back." His face changed from partially confused to totally stunned and shocked, then he looked at me with a look of utmost fury that the Hulk would have envied (and I had seen him angry lots of times). "Why…you…little…" he started to say, before I leaped off the building, saying "Eat my shorts Homer!" and swung away, listening to Jameson bellow obscenities that were never meant to be so much as muttered in this world.

After a couple minutes of swinging I arrived at the landing platform of the Avengers Tower, approximately over 50 stories over the New York streets. I was greeted, as usual, by Tony's AI butler J.A.R.V.I.S. "Good morning Mr. Parker, I hope you are doing well, as usual?" he inquired in his typical technological-British accent. "I'm doing fine right now Jarvis, but please call me Spider-Man when I'm in work clothes," I responded as I strolled down into the meeting room. "Very well sir. I have taken the liberty of informing Mr. Stark and the others that you have just arrived, so they will be expecting you down there."

"Thanks Jarvis." I then entered the building and started towards the meeting room. The first flesh and blood person I met on the way in was Logan, who was smoking a really thick cigar at the time. "What's up kid?" he asked when he glimpsed at me. "Not much, and I'm hardly a kid anymore, I'm in my twenties."

He shrugged and said "So what? You were a kid when you got here, and you ain't much older than you were then." With that he moved on, and so did I. I ran into Carol, Bobbi, Jessica Drew, and Jessica Jones next. They were all standing together, probably talking about guys and dating, and they looked over and said hi to me. "What took you so long, you're usually here earlier," asked Carol, and I responded "I had a little run-in with Jameson."

Jessica Jones smiled and nodded, saying "No need to say more Peter, I get what you mean." While she was pregnant she had a temporary job at the Bugle. It was a short amount of time, but it was enough time to see the kind of ego that J. Jonah Jameson possessed. After talking a little longer with the ladies I continued on my trek to the meeting room. I ran into Luke, Clint, and Daniel, who were standing in front of the door to the meeting room. "Hey Spidey, how you doing?" asked Luke. "Pretty good," I responded, "So how's your baby?"

"She's doing pretty good. Thanks for asking," he said. "So what's going on in there?" I asked, pointing at the doors to the meeting room. Daniel responded "The big guys are in there discussing things." I nodded to show that I understood. The "big guys" were Steve Rodgers, Tony Stark, and Thor, and they were pretty much the official leaders of the Avengers, unless you count Nick Fury. They were probably in there deciding on what big news they could share with the rest of us. I continued to talk with the guys until Steve came out. He stood in front of us, standing tall, broad, and muscular, wearing his Captain America outfit, his shield strapped to his back.

"We have a situation," he said in a voice that he often used for commanding people. "Wall Street is being robbed." Clint asked "Shouldn't that be a job for the police? I mean, we deal with…"

"It's a hostage situation," Steve interrupted, "and the police don't want to make any wild risks. They thought that we were up to the job and personally asked for our assistance." I was worried. Any situation that needed our intervention couldn't be good. "So who's holding the hostages? Osborn? Baron Zemo? Terrorists?" I asked. "Clowns," answered Steve.

For a second I thought I misheard, and apparently, so did Luke. "I'm sorry Cap, but I think I mis…"

"You didn't," said Steve in a tone of seriousness that let me know right there that he was far from kidding. "There's no time to explain, because we are wasting precious time here. Peter," he said turning to me, "you go ahead with Carol, Jessica, and Tony, since you guys can fly or swing or whatever. Me and the rest of the guys will catchup in a little bit with the Quinjet."

"You got it boss," I said, and I headed out to carry out those orders. A little while later I was looking down on Wall Street with Carol, who had changed into her Ms. Marvel costume, Jessica, who was in her Spider-Woman outfit, the other Jessica, who had no official costume and was still in her everyday clothes, and Tony, who was clad in probably the most awesome superhero outfit ever, the Iron Man suit. Wall Street was currently flooded with police cars and officers, all of them facing the entrance with their guns pointed, but none of them were firing any shots. "So what's it look like in there Stark?" asked Carol. Tony was silent for a second, probably studying the building with the suit technology, then he answered, "We have five clowns, all of which are armed with a gun, two are on one of the computers in there, three are watching the hostages, and they're all on their knees with their hands to their heads."

"Do we have a way in that's stealthy?" Jessica asked, and once again Tony stood silent and analyzed the surroundings. He finally said "This may seem like a big cliché, but some of you might have a chance if you sneak in through the ventilation system. You would have to stay quiet, and you might have to take it slow, but you could get behind them without them noticing. In the meantime I'll handle things out here." I will admit, I was confused about Tony's logic. "What needs getting done out here?"

Tony answered, "If I was to go down to where the police are and pretend to converse with the officers, I might be able to fool the clowns into paying attention to me. You all in the meantime will do the ventilation system plan." I had to admit, it seemed like a genius idea, but I was still anxious about it. One wrong move and there was the possibility of a dead hostage. Still, it was the best we could come up with, and time was ticking. Soon enough, Tony was in front of the building with Carol and the police, and I was crawling through a vent shaft with Spider-Woman and Jessica at my tail. They had originally proposed going ahead of me, but I wanted to avoid any inappropriate or awkward views while crawling, and they seemed to agree with my logic, so I was ahead of them. Eventually we got a view of the room where the hostages were being held, and it matched Tony's description precisely. Two guys with different clown masks were working on a computer, no doubt stealing stock, while three other guys, also in different clown masks, were guarding the hostages. I noticed that they were anxiously facing in the direction of the entrance.

So far it seemed like Tony's diversion was working, but we still had to do our job, and it was far harder than what Tony and Carol were doing. Stealthily I crawled out of the vent, which was about fifteen feet above the ground, and edged my way on the wall to let Spider-Woman and Jessica out, and they silently flew to the ground. Upon landing, we immediately went to work.

Before any of the thugs could turn, I had aimed and fired a well-placed web at one of them in the face, and the poor guy started wailing under the tight constriction of it. The other four turned to see the commotion and aimed their weapons, but not before Spider-Woman fired a venom blast at one and hit another in the stomach, while Jessica flew at another and took him out with her own mad skills, and the last got an energy blast in his back from Carol, who flew in with Tony after we started the attack.

I looked around to observe the battle damage, but it seemed like there was very little this time, which was rare, and I said, to loosen the tension, "Well folks, that's a wrap." The others looked at me and raised their eyebrows, which they typically do when I crack a joke. We were about to comfort the hostages when I heard laughter behind me. It wasn't legit all out laughing, it was more sarcastic and kidding, and it was one of the creepiest things I ever heard. I turned around to face the person, and it was the clown that Spider-Woman had hit. I didn't pay attention to what he was wearing before, but now I took full notice that he was clothed in a purple swing coat and pants, and his vest underneath was green. He stopped his laughing and said, "And I thought _my_ jokes were bad." He took off his mask, and what I saw underneath it was one of the most disturbing things I've ever seen. Even without his mask he was a clown, because his whole face was smeared with white makeup, which wasn't very neat, and his long greasy hair was bleached green. The area around his eyes were covered in black makeup, giving him an imposing glance, but the most chilling part of his face was his smile.

It was a regular mouth, but the edges stretched up into his cheeks thanks to scars that were partially visible, and his lips and the scars were covered in red lipstick, giving him the image of a frightening grin. I was nearly freaked out by this bizarre appearance, and by the look of it, so were the Avengers with me. Finally Tony stepped forward and spoke, "Now I don't know what your game is clown, but…"

"Oh, I was thinking something along the lines of freeze-tag," the clown retorted in a clipped and partially theatrical voice, "though poker is my preferred downtime." At this we were all standing in a temporary confusion, before Carol started pacing forward saying, "Okay, that's it! I don't care who you are, 'cause I'm gonna…"

"Ah ah ah," said the clown, and he withdrew his swing coat, and I saw to my horror that his entire torso was strapped with dynamite and grenades, and the sight of it was enough for Carol to pause as we all looked on anxiously. "Let's not blow this out of proportion," said the clown, tugging a bit on a string that was attached to the explosives. Jessica looked at the clown angrily and said, "You really think that you're going to get away with this, just because you packed yourself with TNT?"

"Yeah," said the clown in a matter-of-fact tone, continuing to tug on the string threateningly, causing us to back up a step. We had a chance of escaping an explosion, but we didn't want to risk the hostages' lives. Spider-Woman eventually said, stepping forward gradually, "You're bluffing. You wouldn't want to risk your own…"

"You wanna bet?" he said, tugging evermore threateningly, causing her to back up again. He drew what looked like a playing card from one of his pockets with his other hand and said, "So why don't I go, and you guys can call me. Here's my card." He laid the card on one of the desk nearby, and I saw that it was a playing card. It was a Joker. The clown started backing up for the back entrance, keeping his eyes on us, and out of nowhere Steve's shield flew towards him.

The shield hit the hand that held the trigger for the explosives, causing him to yelp in pain, and Tony blasted him in an exposed spot, causing him to fall over. Steve, Luke, Logan, Daniel, Clint, and Bobbi all entered on the scene, and we recounted the event that had just taken place. "Sorry for coming late," Steve explained, "but we had a hard time starting up the Quinjet."

We were all talking when we heard a groan, and we turned to see the clown sitting up with what energy he had left. He looked at us with look of annoyance on his face, but for some reason that I barely understood, it didn't seem like he was making it out of pain. It was out of disappointment. "I was right, you know," he said, looking up at Cap. Steve looked down and said to him, in a voice with an edge of anger, "What were you right about?" The clown continued to look annoyed, and he finally said, "You'll never be like the Batman." With that, Logan ran forward, yelled, and punched the clown, knocking him out.

With that over with, we were all standing there, looking at each other with confused expressions on our faces, wondering the questions that were laid out for us. Who was this clown? What was with the Joker card? And more importantly, who was Batman?


	3. Chapter 3

Clark

I love Metropolis. Now you could tell me that I only like it here because I grew up here, but then I'll tell you to get your facts straight. I grew up in Smallville Kansas, but I also like Metropolis for being familiar, bright, and welcoming. I especially like it when I'm working. No, not my everyday work at the Daily Planet, but my fly-around-and-save-the-world-and-my-girlfriend work. It's nice to fly around in the daytime with the wind in my face and looking down at people below me, occasionally waving to one of them. But I wasn't in Metropolis at the start of my greatest adventure, nor was it daytime. I was in Gotham at the time, and it was one in the morning. Gotham didn't feel too much like Metropolis. Sure they were both the largest and most resourceful cities in the US, and maybe even the world, but they had a vast difference in their airs. Whereas Metropolis had the reputation of being more welcoming, Gotham felt more like an overlarge jungle, and if you took one wrong step it would devour you.

I was floating in midair 10 stories above the roof of a warehouse at the time, and I was using my x-ray vision to view the events inside. I was wondering if I should go in when a familiar voice behind me said, "Hey." I turned around, probably expecting a fight, but immediately my face broke into a grin and I responded, "Hey there."

It was Diana. She, like me, was in her work clothes, a suit of velvet and armor designed after the American flag, with a silver tiara atop her head. She was floating a few feet above me with her black hair flowing weightlessly in the wind, her face also in a friendly smile. "What're you doing here?" I asked her. She shrugged her shoulders and said, "I was passing by, and I saw you down here, so I got curious. So the real question that should be asked in this situation is what you are doing here." I looked back down at the warehouse, recalling the previous events of the night, and I finally answered, "Earlier this evening I was covering a story at City Hall, where the Mayors of Metropolis and Gotham were meeting. They were closing some piece of unimportant legislation regarding their respected cities, and the event was made public."

Diana cocked her head to one of her shoulders. "Oh, really?" I nodded and continued, "The Mayor of Metropolis's daughter, Jules, disappeared an hour after the event began, and the police were called to investigate." At this an expression of slight concern appeared on her face, and I continued, "I would have been out of there earlier to look for her, but I was held back for five minutes by some detective for questioning. None of the guests were allowed to leave, so I lost more time actually trying to get out of there. When I did, I used my senses to track the kidnappers here," and I gestured down at the warehouse. Diana looked down at it, then she looked back at me and asked, "So who are the kidnappers?" I answered casually, "Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. Black Mask is also down there with some of his thugs, and I heard him talking about a ransom, so I assume that the ransom would have been Jules." Diana was looking at me with a look of both concern and confusion.

"How come you're taking this so calmly?" she asked, "How come you did not go down and save her by now? You could have spared her of a traumatic moment!"

I turned to face her, and I answered, "Bruce is already down there." She paused for a moment, looking down at the warehouse, and then she nodded out of understanding. Anyone who bothered to get to know Bruce the way I did would know that he preferred to fight his own battles, especially on his home grounds. He was down there in his "Batsuit"; he had already taken out all of the thugs and the Black Mask, and he was now working against Ivy and Harley, and he seemed to be doing a pretty good job of it. I was thinking that he might not need help from us, but then things turned for the worst. Black Mask had gotten up, got hold of a shotgun, and he grabbed Jules, who was bound and gagged, and held her in front of him.

"Cut it out Bats!" he yelled, and Bruce paused and looked at Black Mask and Jules. He slowly moved his hand in the direction of his belt, which held quite the arsenal. Unfortunately Black Mask had noticed too. "Don't even think about it! Get your hands in the air, or I blow this brat away!" and he gestured his gun at Jules, whose eyes were streaming with tears out of fear. Bruce did as he was told, and he said in his gritty, animalistic voice, "Let her go Sionis." Black Mask responded, "You're in no position to make that demand Bats. Thanks to the girl, you're in my power now, and I'm gonna make the most of it!" With his thugs and the two women watching, he pointed the gun at Bruce.

Fortunately I anticipated this, and I crashed through the roof and landed in front of Bruce, just in time to intercept the shotgun pellets, and they ricocheted off of me. I'm not sure who was the most surprised at my sudden appearance. Black Mask had started to say, "What the…", but I was across the room before he could finish, and I punched him through the concrete wall a couple of yards away. He would live, but I wasn't concerned about that at the time. I then rushed around the hanger, forcing the remaining thugs through crates and walls. One idiot tried to shoot me, so I emphasized my point by melting his handgun with my heat vision, and his courage faded almost immediately. He tried to reason with me, but I sent him flying across the room.

The only remaining baddies standing up were Harvey and Ivy, and they didn't look like they lost any of their nerve after I took out the thugs. If anything, they looked tougher and angrier than before. "Very impressive Man of Steel," said Ivy, "but _I_ do not give up so easily." Harley waved a giant hammer over her head and stated, "Yeah Supes, you're gonna have to take on the both of us now!" I casually looked up to the ceiling and said, "No I won't." Ivy and Harley looked slightly confused, but they lost that confusion when they looked up and saw Diana descending upon them fast. I headed over to Jules and comforted her as Bruce looked on and Diana tied up the two female felons. "I'm sorry Superman," she sobbed, tears running down her face, "I didn't mean to…"

"Calm down Jules, things are going to be alright." This wasn't the first time Jules went through something like this simply because she was the Mayors daughter, so I had plenty of experience in comforting her. Five minutes later the police showed up and secured the baddies while me, Bruce, and Diana stood on top of the building opposite of the crime scene. The silence between us was pretty tense, so I gave it my best shoot to break it. "So we made some pretty great progress tonight, right?" Diana shrugged and said, "Besides the two ladies, it was hardly a worthy fight." Bruce, however, stayed silent as he stared down at Harley and Ivy, who were being loaded into a police truck. His expression was grimmer than usual.

I knew that I had broken one of Bruce's ideals by intervening in the affair, and if there was one thing I preferred to avoid, it was making Bruce more ticked off than usual. "Look, Bruce," I started, "I just wanted…"

"Thank you," he interrupted. I stared at him in wonder. "Excuse me?" I asked. He responded, "Your intervening allowed less risks to occur, and you saved the girl more efficiently than I originally planned. So thanks." We stood silent for a little longer, Diana also looking a little surprised at the event she witnessed, until I finally whipped up more courage to ask, "So you're not mad?" At that he breathed deeply and said, "Not at you." My curiosity gave me more nerve to ask further, and some of that courage spread to Diana. "Is there a problem Bruce, because you seem…"

"Waller is coming to meet up with Ivy and Harley," he responded, his voice sounding a bit angrier than before. At that me and Diana paused then nodded our heads. If there was another thing that people would know about Bruce if they got to know him, they would know that he absolutely _loathed_ anything to do with Amanda Waller, an employee of the government and the one in charge of the Suicide Squad, which Harley and Ivy were probably going to join up with based off of Bruce's information, and his info is never wrong.

Seeking to change topics, Diana started, "So this is where we…" Then our ear-pieces started beeping. All Justice Leaguers kept these to contact each other if assistance was needed in their respected areas. We all put our hands to the ear pieces and I said, "Hello? J'onn?" J'onn was stationed at the computers in the Justice League Watchtower in space, and as expected he responded, "Clark? Good to hear from you. Barry just released a distress signal from Central City, and I need any available Leaguers to go and assist him. I hope that you are available?" I nodded. He continued, "Is there anyone else with you?" I responded, "Bruce and Diana. If they're not busy they'll come." J'onn thanked me and hung up.

I turned to Diana and Bruce and asked, "So are you coming?" Diana said, "Are you kidding? That last fight nearly bored me to Hades. Of course I'll accompany you!" Bruce said, "I've got nothing else here. I'm in." I turned in the direction of Central City and tried to imagine possible scenarios in which Barry would need assistance. I called back to Bruce, "We're going to need to travel fast. Need a ride?"

Bruce called back, sounding a bit more distant, "I brought mine." I turned to see what he was talking about, and I saw that Bruce was no longer standing there. Instead he was sitting in his Bat, which rose from behind the building, and I smiled and shook my head.

Pretty soon we were all flying towards Central City, hurrying as fast as we could in order to assist Barry. We made it there after a while, and we could see some smoke rising from the streets in the center of the town. Quickly we landed there, and a lot of people were running away screaming. Others were lying on the street, covered in blood, and I couldn't hear any of their hearts beating. I cursed at myself for coming too late to save them, but then I saw Barry standing in the distance, surrounded by smoke and dust. "Flash!" I started towards him and asked, "What's going…" I didn't finish. Barry ran forward with his super-speed and knocked me, Diana, and Bruce out of the way.

It didn't hurt, but I was surprised at how much stronger Barry seemed to be. I mean, sure he put a lot of force into his blows whenever he went fast, but he was stronger than usual. I was pondering this when another voice with a New Jersey accent came from the smoke and said sarcastically, "Oh man, that looked like it should have hurt." I turned to face the mysterious voice, and I'm not so sure that I would have kept my cool if I wasn't Superman. This new guy was the most bizarre and frightening thing that I ever saw, because he was entirely covered in as strange blood-red substance. It had small appendages that looked almost web-like, and that would have been scary enough, but his face was even more intimidating. His eyes were big and white, almost bug-like, and his mouth was enlarged and lined with jagged teeth formed by the red stuff.

I could hear Diana's and Bruce's hearts beating behind me, so I knew that they were also briefly scared, but we tried our best to keep our composure. That didn't convince the strange creature though. "Aw, are you scared?" he mocked, striding forward with his knees bent as if he was preparing to pounce. "Well you ought to be! You shouldn't be much of a challenge since I took out your pal!" He pointed at Barry, who was standing behind us, and I saw to my horror that he was also covered in the strange substance. It took the form of his Flash-suit, but it gave him the same facial appearance of the first creature, with pointed red teeth and giant, pure-white eyes. A realization came over me, and I turned back to the first creature, but this time there was no fear in me. There was only rage. "You corrupted him," I growled. He shrugged his shoulders and casually said, "Naw, I could have sworn that I…_perfected_ him."

Diana stepped forward, also wearing anger in her eyes, and growled, "You've murdered innocent people and endangered the life of our friend. For that I am going to put you down!" With that she drew out her sword and her lasso, but the creature didn't look intimidated. Instead he paused for a moment, then he lunged with surprising speed, his hand forming into what looked like a battle axe, and he raked it across my chest. Fortunately it wasn't one of those strange and unknown substances that could cut me, so it just splattered across my torso. The creature looked at me with what was probably mock surprise and curiosity, and I punched him down the block. He tumbled a bit, then he came to a stop and came back to his feet quickly, a bit more surprise etched on his face.

I called to him, "Was that supposed to hurt?" He gave me a sinister smile and shouted back, "Naw, that was supposed to…how did I say it again…_perfect_ you." With that, the substance that was splattered on my suit started writhing and expanding over my body quickly. I tried to burn it off with my heat vision, but it kept expanding until my whole body was wrapped tight. I'm sure that Bruce and Diana were calling to me and trying to help me, but all I could remember was feeling the substance stretch my mouth wider and tighten on my skin. Eventually I could see again, but my vision seemed to have increased somehow, and for some reason my thoughts were not my own. They seemed to be filled with evil and hatred. I tried to fight the feeling, but it was too powerful to resist. I wanted to hurt everyone so badly, especially Bruce and Diana. That feeling made me lunge at them, but fortunately Diana was also fast, and she flew with Bruce in her arms further down the street. Diana wore an expression of concern on her face, while Bruce had one of determination.

They looked in my direction, and Bruce whispered to Diana, "You keep Clark occupied. I'll take care of Barry and the monster." With that I flew at them, but Diana was ready this time. She lunged at me, a new look of determination on her face, and she knocked me to the ground. I got up fast and started fighting her in midair, while Bruce ran at Barry with what appeared to be flash-grenades. Bruce was a strategist, so I was sure that he was going to be fine for the time being. Diana continued to put her all into her fight with me, pulling powerful blows to my face and other fancy moves. Unfortunately, for reasons I didn't understand, I felt more powerful with the substance on, and I had an edge over her. I was fighting the urge to fight her, but the substance was winning, and I pounded relentlessly at Diana. Eventually I knocked her into a building, about seven stories above the street, and the substance gave me the urge to make contact with her forearm. Diana was stirring, but I touched her forearm, and the substance spread up her arm and proceeded to envelop her.

She struggled and grunted, but like it did to me, the stuff took control of her. She looked like the creature back down on the street, and her hair was flowing with a new red shade. I looked down at the street to inspect the damage, and I saw Barry lying under some kind of goo with a shade of pink. It was probably one of Bruce's other gadgets. Bruce was taking on the monster now, dodging, hitting, kicking, jumping, doing what he had to do to stay alive. Me and Diana, under the influence of the substance, flew down at him, determined to rip him apart. Fortunately he was quick on his feet, and he leapt over the monster and landed a couple feet away. We faced him, and the monster said mockingly, "Oh, come on man, you've got to do better than that!" Bruce looked directly at him, pure rage and determination written in his eyes, and he calmly reached down to his belt. "I already did," he responded, pressing a button inside one of the pockets.

Immediately a shrieking sound emitted from the creature's back, and too late I saw a small device on it. It was a sonic device, and it was giving off the second loudest sound I ever heard (the first being Dinah's Canary Cry). I had no doubt that Bruce had somehow put it there during the fight. When the waves reached me, I felt as if my skin was on fire, and the substance started to writhe more violently than before. My thoughts suddenly became my own again, and I fought against the influence of the substance, and it painfully started to detach. I looked around and I saw that the same thing was happening to Diana, Barry, and the monster, who was screaming louder than any of us in pain. Bruce was standing by us, looking calm despite the roaring waves of sound. He probably activated ear-plugs inside his cowl or something. After what felt like forever, the substance left my body, and it was the greatest feeling of freedom that I have ever experienced.

The stuff that left me merged with the ones that left Diana, Barry, and the creature, and it started to crawl away. The sonic waves stopped after that, and Bruce pointed at the substance, which was gradually gaining speed, and he yelled, "Get it!" I was dazed from that experience, but I knew what had to get done. I flew to the substance and used my freeze-breath on it, stopping it from escaping. I looked back at the scene, and I saw Diana kneeling over Barry, who was starting to recover, and in place of where the creature was there was a man who was slightly lean and had red curly hair. He looked less confident without the stuff on, but he was still holding up a pocket-knife, and he stammered, "No! No! Not by you! Maybe by Spider-Man, but not by…" He didn't finish. Barry ran up at him and punched him, knocking him out cold. He turned to us and said, "Sorry about snapping."

"Don't be," said Bruce, and he walked to the man, looked him over, and said that he would live. It was a victory for us, but we were left with a lot of questions. Who was this guy? What was that strange substance? And more importantly, who was Spider-Man?


End file.
